


Interlude

by Jeredu



Series: Räven och Slottet [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Brief unnamed cameo by James Potter maybe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 16:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12635217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeredu/pseuds/Jeredu
Summary: Jade discovers a most curious room during his exploration of Hogwarts.





	Interlude

 

When Jade finally succeeded in attaining that which only a fraction of wizards ever managed - becoming an _animagus,_ and at the tender age of fourteen - he wasn’t entirely sure what he had expected. It had been a grueling process, and one which had required careful planning. Waiting for the perfect conditions, enduring a month of keeping a mandrake leaf hidden in his mouth, the adjustments he’d needed to make to his routine to perform the incantations without being seen, _all_ of it had been worth it. He hadn’t necessarily expected himself to be a fox, of all things, but it felt right. 

 

The inquisitive nature, the _curiosity_ and alertness suited him. He was small; not yet fully grown (but that, too, made sense), and well suited for exploring and sneaking about.

 

So, that was exactly what Jade decided to do. 

 

* * *

 

It was no secret that Hogwarts hid a wealth of unused rooms, forgotten corridors, and secret passages. Jade sought to discover as many as he could. Once, he even suspected he was being watched - a presence he couldn’t see, not a ghost, but somebody living? Somebody _hidden._ Jade had tried to make himself scarce, believing his ears and nose more than his eyes, feeling that he had not imagined the footsteps and rustle of fabric. He paced, hearing it draw nearer, still unused to this body and not certain of the direction when the sound echoed off of the cold stone. 

 

His need for refuge was answered when a doorway suddenly appeared where there had been none, and he hid. It was dark, and close, and quiet within the small room, little more than a broom closet and surely nothing of interest to whatever was passing by. 

 

Still, it was a curious closet that only seemed to exist or allow entry some moments but not others. He decided to return later to investigate during the daylight hours.

 

* * *

 

Eventually, Jade made his way back to the corridor and saw that it had become featureless stone once more. He assumed that the door must respond to a trigger of some kind beyond simply being approached. His charmed glasses were showing a faint, formless _something_ within that wall, but it was indistinct. Then again, Hogwarts was so heavily overlaid with enchantments and the layered residue of spellwork and the lines of _old_ magic that it was hard to make out anything specific in this place. Jade decided the best course of action was to recreate his movements from the night he’d hidden, curious to see what was in this room. A room for hiding things, perhaps? He paced, pondering the possibilities. 

 

Once again, the door appeared, larger and with a proper knob. Interesting. 

 

Jade cautiously opened it, and found himself in a _very_ different place, huge and full of what appeared to be the forgotten or lost items from every generation of Hogwarts students from its very beginnings, quite possibly. He could lose himself in this place, sifting through mountains of clutter and contraband, most likely, but he hadn’t that sort of time. It would have been a good place to keep the potion he’d needed to create in order to become an animagus, but that had worked out fine as it was. 

 

Still, _why_ had the room changed shape?

 

He stepped back out, shutting the door and watching it vanish. In both cases, it had seemed, perhaps, to be catering to his desires. And that meant, perhaps, that it might be responding to his surface thoughts. He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of a door skimming through his head, but his interest was piqued. He tried pacing again, this time thinking that he’d like to find a room better suited to practising wand-work or experimenting with potions. 

 

Once again, the door appeared, and behind it was a room with floor-to-ceiling mirrors, various objects, cushions, and a corner filled with labeled ingredients on shelves and a small but sturdy cauldron. 

 

Jade smiled.

 

* * *

 

Over the course of the next several months, Jade kept his knowledge of the place to himself. He wasn’t sure that anything he brought into it wouldn’t be discovered. He’d found it by accident, so how many others had gone before him? 

 

That answer likely lied in plain sight, given what he saw in his second visit to the room. He didn’t visit it frequently because he didn’t want to create a routine to be noticed by others. But when he did visit it, he sought to test the limits of what the room could produce. He wasn’t sure if it was conjuring the objects within itself or creating completely new spaces based on his needs, and he couldn’t help but wonder from what template these designs originated. Had the person who created and enchanted this room also created and enchanted all of its variations by hand? Had somebody brought in the potion ingredients he’d seen? Would they function as well as ingredients obtained through more conventional means? Did the supply restock itself? What objects could it create? He’d seen it make furniture, as well as pillows and even instruments used in detecting dark magic. One limitation, he found, was that it would not produce money, and it would not produce objects which did not already exist. His attempts to make the room conjure wealth or legendary objects failed, and that was for the best. 

 

Neither, Jade found, could the room create food. It seemed to adhere to the same laws as conjuration magic, so perhaps its contents were being conjured. But then… there was that large room. Regardless of what state this room reverted to when not used, objects brought into it seemed to remain intact. 

 

* * *

 

The room became the object of his study for the rest of the year, and he decided to introduce it to Jasper and Peony at the beginning of the following year. They didn’t often make use of it, and all three agreed that it would be better to keep visits infrequent so as to not attract more attention to the room’s existence. They occasionally used it for learning spells which were not part of the curriculum, and Jasper was the first to successfully conjure a corporeal _Patronus_ \- a German Shepherd. 

 

* * *

 

Now, in Jade’s sixth year, with whispers echoing after him, rumors dogging his steps, and eyes following him constantly after the death of the woman named Gelda Nebilim, a person whom he’d admired above all others, Jade found himself feeling like a stranger even within his own House. Tensions brought on by the war brewing in the wizarding world began to bleed into the relations between students. Classmates turned upon their peers with looks of fear or respect, unease, or even scorn. The latter was worn openly in the halls, and students traveled in packs. Jade was not unfriendly with his Housemates, but he did not trust easily. 

 

Eventually, Jade, Peony, and Jasper began meeting in the Room with more frequency. It was one of the few places they could study together and talk without earning the disapproving glares of at least three Houses. Eventually, they settled on a favorite arrangement of the room, containing large cushions, low tables, and a large and well-stuffed couch facing a small fireplace, completed by a thick rug. It was a small room, almost cozy, but it was just the right size for the three of them. 

 

In the following days, this would become their safest haven.

 

* * *

 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be the beginning part of a different work, but the tone and pacing felt too different to keep them as one, and this is too long to really be an intro/prologue when the piece in question is not a very long story, either. It will be posted soon.


End file.
